


Protectiveness

by BookofOdym



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 08:44:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20793866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookofOdym/pseuds/BookofOdym
Summary: Barry is confused when Len starts getting protective of him, but when they have to work together, maybe he starts to feel the same way.





	Protectiveness

The fact that they fought speedsters so often was strange, every so often a new speedster would show up, wanting to fight Barry. This happened far more often than with any other power. Heck, most abilities only had one user, at least only one who turned to villainy, forcing Team Flash to fight them. 

Barry was never fast enough, not the first time around, he was still learning how to use his powers, and would probably still be learning how to use them for years to come. It was true of every skill, and it took a man a long time to get used to something like the Speed Force. 

The new speedster that had shown up seemed to have decades more experience than Barry, he was faster, could react to everything that Barry threw at him, and his punches had more force behind it, so much force that Barry had felt his bones break the first time one of the other speedster’s punches had landed. 

In fact, it seemed like the villain’s only weakness was extremely low temperatures, which he had discovered when one Leonard Snart had happened across the battle. Barry had been sprawled down on the ground and watched in shock as first a fine layer of frost, and next, a thick coating of ice spread across the speedster’s skin. 

“Y-you,” he managed, gritting his teeth as his aching ribs began to move back into place. “What are you doing here?” 

“Couldn’t let someone else hurt my favorite do-gooder,” Snart drawled, swinging his cold gun back behind his neck, “not when I’m the only one who’s allowed to hurt you.” 

Barry decided not to argue back, even though Snart hadn’t actually tried to kill him in a long time. He would never suggest that Captain Cold had rescued him because he actually liked having Barry around, such a suggestion would only upset the criminal. He did, however, take the hand that was offered to him, and used it to pull himself back up to his feet. 

“Thank you anyway,” he said, a soft smile finding its way onto his face. Snart swallowed. 

“Anyway,” he said, gripping the red leather of Barry’s suit, and he began pulling the speedster away from the scene of the battle, “We’d better get away before whoever that is manages to...” 

A sudden burst of steam came from behind them, and both men whirled around, only to see that it was coming from the frozen figure, an orange light emanated from the man, and a puddle of water started to form around him. 

“...escape.” Snart finished, taking off in a run, it only took Barry a few seconds to take off after him, making sure to grab the criminal and carry him, princess style, away from the danger. 

It wasn’t the last time that Snart rescued him from danger. 

* * *

The next time it happened, Barry hadn’t been fighting a speedster. Instead, he had been attempting to infiltrate another criminal organization and was meeting with the boss. It hadn’t been going well. In fact, Tarrant’s hand had been steadily moving towards his hip, where he kept a holster. Barry had known that he’d recognized the boss, he’d been standing outside a crime scene earlier that week. He must have seen Barry’s face. He must have known that Barry worked with the cops. 

“Anyway,” Barry had said, attempting to rectify the situation, not that he was planning on being hit by the bullet, “I’m sure we can come to some kind of agreement, if you don’t trust me quite yet, I’ll take on the job pro bono.” 

The criminal’s hand gripped the handle of the gun. 

A loud crash came from behind him. Snart stood in the doorway. Apparently, he had kicked it open, because his leg was raised in the air, and Rory stood beside him. 

A sudden shot of cold shot from Snart’s gun, covering the criminal’s hand with a thin film of ice. He screamed in pain when Cold leaped across the room, crushing his hand beneath his boot. 

“I had this!” Barry yelled, wincing in response to the loud yell. “Everything was under control!” Barry was capable of getting out of the way of a bullet, he didn’t need to be protected, and Tarrant would most likely believe that he’d just missed when Barry ran out of the way and back in under a second. 

Captain Cold ignored him, Barry hadn’t been expecting a response anyway, and turned his gun to the doorway, blocking the entrance with a thick layer of ice. “This was a bad plan, Scarlet, you know better than to get in the middle of turf wars.” 

The tips of Barry’s ears turned red as his blood began to boil, “And what about you!” He’d asked, his voice becoming more high pitched as it rose in volume. “How were you planning on fighting a meta-human?!” 

Cold’s mouth had opened as if he was about to speak, and then immediately snapped shut, it was obvious that he’d absolutely no idea that the new criminal in town had powers. Barry allowed himself a moment of smugness. A sword swung down, cutting the table in two. 

Abel Tarrant, AKA The Tattooed Man, was a metahuman ex-sailor with the ability to turn his tattoos into real objects. He had a lot of tattoos. Barry didn’t know what a sailor had been doing in Central City when the Particle Accelerator exploded, but apparently, he was the only one who cared about that. 

They made a run for it when Tarrant had pressed his fingers to a radiation symbol on his forearm. 

* * *

It was starting to get a little strange, Captain Cold’s sudden protectiveness, he showed up at half a dozen other fights after that, always to save Barry from anything that he had no way of beating. He always left immediately afterward, though, he would show up, help Barry defeat the villain of the week, and then when Barry turned around for a fist bump or a lecture (most of the time it was a lecture) he would be gone. 

Then, Cold had disappeared for a while, apparently off working with the Legends, and Barry had almost forgotten about the weird protectiveness. Then, one day, he’d walked into his apartment, only to find Snart standing there. 

“You can’t just break-in,” Barry said peevishly, then, he asked: “Where have you been?” His voice cracked when he asked that question, and he winced, he didn’t want Cold thinking that he’d been concerned about him. 

But Cold hadn’t been in the mood to answer any questions. “There’s no time, I need your help. There’s a new time criminal in this period.” 

The criminal’s name was Parallax.


End file.
